Wispmother
by Sajira
Summary: Loki's curious nature leads him to make friends with a being from legend.


Loki had never been so glad of being a silent walker as he watched from behind a tree in the gardens as his mother quietly talked to her plants. Magic was not uncommon in her garden, and Loki had often seen manifestations, sometimes interacting with his mother, sometimes by themselves, sometimes even with him. But this, he had never seen.

A Wispmother was floating silently just behind Frigga. She had her hands on the marble arm of some oversized warrior statue, her body curled slightly along his back. Wisps of smoke fluttered into nothingness as she floated easily as if submerged in water. She seemed to crane her neck, trying to see what Frigga was doing with her fingers in the earth.

His mother was very much aware of the rare being behind her, but she remained relaxed and continued humming to herself and speaking spell-laced words of encouragement to her plants. Her eyes flitted over to Loki and she smiled. As if noticing Frigga's distraction, the Wispmother snapped her head to him, instantly vanishing with a soft whoosh.

"Good morning, Loki." His mother finally greeted. "Did you see our new guest?"

"Was that a Wispmother?" he approached and kissed her cheek.

"Indeed. She's been roaming around my garden for a few days now. I think one of her wisps called her here when I pulled him out of the pond last week." Frigga wiped her hands on a cloth and collected a basket with a few gardening tools and some herbs she had harvested.

"Aren't they supposed to be dangerous?" he asked, offering his arm and leading her back inside.

"Oh, they are. If provoked." Frigga nodded. "But this is my garden, and she knows that. We won't harm each other."

* * *

Loki had taken to reading outside more often in the hopes of seeing the Wispmother again, but aside from a wisp having taken rest on his knee one late afternoon, there was no sign of her. He even went so far as making sure to arrive at all times of the day to see if she preferred to appear then, but nothing. His absorption of the texts he brought from the library had increased significantly, though. His mother's garden truly was healing for the mind and body.

He researched wisps and Wispmothers, but found very little about them. He did, however, come across an interesting piece of information. They were prone to appear at night-time, so her appearance that early morning was even more shocking.

He remembered that fact one night when he left one of his brother's detestable banquets with a pitcher of wine and a cup. He changed his course from the library to sit in the garden instead. Some flowers bloomed only at night and they shone faintly with their own light. Fëa, his mother called it. He sat at the foot of the statue the Wispmother had perched on that day and sipped at his wine, watching the breeze ruffle the flowers and listening to the nocturnal animals. The racket from the feast could not be heard from here, so Loki allowed himself to relax and soak in the cool night air. He always preferred cooler temperatures, he wasn't sure why. He gazed ahead, barely focusing, allowing himself to relax and just exist. He rarely felt this serene.

Something caught his attention. He was so tranquil, that his muscles took a few seconds to tense and his eyes to finally focus. Was that a wisp again?

He squinted his eyes as he tried to keep his movements natural and carefree as if he hadn't noticed anything. He raised his cup and took a sip of the wine, using the opportunity to adjust his head's position to increase his field of vision. There it was again. It wasn't a wisp. He was nearly giddy as he watched the brume blow over the flowers and grass, slowly creeping up to him. A tiny shred of white-blue element fluttered into his line of sight and dissolved on his shoulder. He blinked at the cool feeling.

Ever so slowly, the Wispmother approached him from above, once again choosing to support herself on the statue. He finally couldn't pretend anymore that he hadn't seen her, so instead of risking being impolite and making her think he was ignoring her, he slowly turned his head up and regarded her.

She had a heart-shaped face, with a small mouth and large eyes which glowed with their own white-blue light. Her hair floated around her like a silvery crown and was sluggish to follow her head's movements, as if she were submerged in water. She tilted her head and frowned at him. Loki sat very still, unable to predict her next movements and not wanting to either scare her away or trigger an attack.

She clambered down the statue to ground level and sat on the grass in front of him, diagonally to his left, the wine pitcher between them. She remained staring at him, an annoyed look on her face as her eyes followed his hand rising to his mouth so he could take the last gulp from his cup. He set it down and folded his hands in his lap.

Around them, her wisps started appearing and softly moving about. They all moved independently in different directions, but their blue fire seemed to collectively move the same way, as if caught in a tide. It reminded Loki of deep sea plants. He looked back at the Wispmother to notice the faint smoke seeping from her swaying the same way. They danced to her beat, apparently.

Suddenly, they all disappeared when the loud scuffing of feet alerted them to someone's presence. Fandral had brought a very drunk woman from the feast.

"Fandral, we shouldn't be here! This is queen Frigga's garden!"

"I would listen to her, if I were you." Loki rose, all quiet disturbed and the peace beginning to seep into his bones gone with the wisps.

"Ah, Loki. Surely the queen doesn't need to know?" Fandral didn't wait for an answer and simply led the woman away. Loki huffed in annoyance and looked back, the only thing left of his encounter was an upturned jar of wine, a wisp floating curiously around it. As he approached, he expected the wisp to vanish, but it just drifted lazily around his wrist as he picked up the jar and cup. He looked curiously at it before gently wrapping his fingers around the small being and depositing it inside one of the larger flowers. He turned and calmly strode out of the gardens, pretending not to notice the Wispmother gathering her wisp and turning her head to watch him leave.

* * *

The next few weeks proved fruitless in his attempts to make contact with the Wispmother. Her wisps, however, seemed to take a liking to him. Even during daytime, they would often float around his head, or perch on his book. He soon started to experiment with them.

They appeared to be made of some sort of ethereal fire, but they felt cold, and wouldn't burn paper or his skin. They were somewhat consistent in form, but his fingers passed through them with little resistance. He soon found they were ticklish little creatures, who would coo echoingly whenever he touched them.

Finally, one evening, a few hours after sunset, Loki was sitting on a bench, playing with the wisps on his discarded book when one of them left the group and floated to the grass. Loki watched as the others followed, forming a queue into the woods behind the garden. He stood and stared at the dark trees apprehensively. He read about wisps leading victims to their deaths, their spirits becoming wisps themselves to serve and feed the Wispmother.

And even so, his feet moved and led him into the woods. With each step he took, the mist hovering by the forest floor got denser.

He didn't have to walk far. He followed the trail of wisps up the stream to a small waterfall, where the Wispmother was apparently floating aimlessly around. He stopped and watched her. One of the wisps floated up to her and seemed to alert her of his presence, for she snapped around to face him.

She was a force to behold. Loki felt the power radiating from her subside from an aggressive stance to a cautious one. She drifted over to him and looked up at his face. She floated a little upwards to meet his eyes at the same height. Her hand rose and she touched his hair. Her fingers were long and slender, much like the rest of her. Loki smiled and slowly held out his hand. She fluttered back a little to look it.

"Hello." He greeted as softly as he could. "My name is Loki." He watched as she seemed to consider something. A wisp hovered around his wrist, cooing faintly. She finally put her hand in his and he closed his fingers around hers. She was far more tangible than her wisps, bordering on having solid flesh, but still not as much as him.

"Nnenne." She murmured. So she was capable of speech and coherent thought. Loki smiled wider.

"Hello, Nnenne. It is my pleasure to meet you."

"Why?" she took her hand from his.

"I like making new friends." He dropped his hand and leaned against the tree behind him. She seemed to relax by the second, and her curiosity over him only increased.

"Friends?" she wafted closer and higher, again burying her fingers in his hair, playing with the strands. She was laying in midair nearly upside down, her lower body smoking upwards into the night sky.

"Are we not?" he turned his head to her and rose an eyebrow. He wanted to touch her hair too, to rub his fingers on her sleeve, to know what a being like her was made of, but he didn't want to push a limit and risk scaring her away. He was patient.

"Yes. Friends." She floated back down and held out her hands to him. In her cupped palms was a wisp. He looked back up at her inquisitively. "Take." She nudged her hands to his chest. He accepted the wisp with both hands and watched as it sailed languidly up his arm to rest on his shoulder.

"Come back tomorrow dark." She nodded. "Give back wisp."

And with that, she vanished into the wind.

* * *

The next day was amusing to say the least. Loki watched his brother scream bloody murder when he saw the wisp on the breakfast table and proceeded to try and squish it with his hammer. The wisp merely cooed inquisitively when it floated through and out of Mjölnir, hovering curiously around its handle. Thor let go of his precious hammer and shook his hand with a startled grunt.

Loki and the wisp spent the rest of the morning harassing Thor and his friends in the sparring yard. Loki stood by a banister and watched as the wisp appeared in unexpected places, then vanished as soon as someone tried to catch it. They asked Loki to stop his magic tricks, but he merely shrugged and told them it wasn't a trick.

Upon hearing of an actual wisp floating around, Odin appeared with a calculating look in his ice-blue eye and watched the wisp quickly dashing in and out of reach of Huginn and Muninn, baiting them and successfully irritating the Allfather, but Frigga soon calmed him and laughed as the wisp snuggled into her hair for a moment.

Loki made sure not to let the wisp out of his sight to learn all he could before night fell. It seemed like a lazy, sluggish being, but it was very smart and mischievous, not to mention very quick.


End file.
